When I was in seminary, I was exposed to small town Georgia newspapers. There was one, The Herald-Journal of Green County, that carried one of the all-time news stories. The H-J didn’t run absurd stories like “Hitler is alive and living on Neptune” or “Woman Births Duck”. But this story was an eye-popper.

The headline read, “The Lord Speaks to Pep Stone Warning Him Not to Go to Hayfield Where Over $30,000 in Machinery Was Stolen in the Early Morning.”

Long headline, sure, but it gave the reader all the facts in a hurry. Local citizen Pep Stone had been in the hay business since 1948. He awakened at 2am. It was raining. Pep remembered he hadn’t covered a hayfield the previous day.

So he got up to go cover it. In the article, Pep said, “I was still in bed, fixing to get up and put on my overalls, when a voice came to me and said, ‘Don’t go, you will get hurt.’”

Pep went back to bed. Later he and a friend drove to the hayfield. At the gate they found the lock shot away.

Tough break, but Pep put it in perspective: “I am living today because of my religious belief. It was a voice that spoke loud and clear. I honestly believe if I’d gone down to the hayfield, I would have been killed.”

Do you realize the news of the Lord speaking to a mortal is bigger news than Elvis is running a carwash outside Memphis or that a woman gave birth to ducks?